Chapter 30

On the morning her mother and Abigail are set to leave, Natalie walks with her mother, who bluntly voices worries about Natalie’s life, the children, and the failing ranch. Humiliated and furious, Natalie recognizes that she and Caleb have been pretending at a frontier life they cannot sustain.

Watching Caleb wave from the fields, Natalie realizes he loves the farm and will never leave, and that Doug will keep them dependent by slowly reducing support rather than cutting them off. Her panic deepens when her mother relays Vanessa’s warning about their “organic” produce; a visible pesticide barrel exposes Natalie’s secret directive to have workers spray at night, a deception she has hidden from Caleb that could result in fines.

After their family departs, Samuel cries and Clementine repeatedly tugs at Natalie, finally saying she wants to live with Abigail and her cousins. The remark stings, tightening Natalie’s sense of suffocation and failure.

Seeking control and external approval, Natalie decides to post a thirst-trap style family image. After failed attempts by Caleb, she takes hundreds of selfies, shouting her family into silence, and finally captures a close-up with Caleb and the children walking away in the background. She posts it with a celebratory caption, reframing her life as enviable and recommitting to curating her image.

That night, after dinner, Natalie tells Caleb she wants another baby. She has sex with him to conceive, explicitly reversing her earlier resolve to avoid pregnancy.